THE RE FAMILY
Born in Fremantle but raised in an Italian household, John Re’s destiny as fixer between Europe and Australia almost seems preordained. The third-eldest of 10 brothers, Re worked in his Sicilian father Giuseppe’s food-importing business before striking out on his own to open a no-name Northbridge fruit-and-veg shop with his wife, Maria, in 1929. After seven years of serving the area, the Re family – aided by the proceeds of pawning Maria’s engagement ring – relocated to bigger premises on the corner of Lake and Aberdeen streets and opened The Re Store.
While fresh fruit and vegetables remained a major part of the business, the expansion allowed the Res to diversify their offering, starting by importing new products to cater to the area’s growing, predominantly European, population. Many of these new arrivals were also Italian, so pasta, olive oil and proper parmesan cheese were, unsurprisingly, among the goods the Res brought to Perth.
Less expected, however, was the way that non-Italians (gradually) embraced these products. Balsamic vinegar would eventually share cupboard space with “typical” vinegar varieties like white and brown. Jars of good-quality sun-dried tomatoes and pickled eggplants were available for curious eaters whose families weren’t already making their own.
Over the years, the range grew to include non-Italian cheeses such as brie, camembert and Emmental, which, for the most part, many customers had never tried before.
Acquainting people to the pleasures of the European table remains integral to The Re Store experience, both at the Northbridge mothership and its West Leederville spinoff, originally opened in 1952, but relocated in the early 1970s after the original store was demolished to make way for the construction of the Mitchell Freeway.
“I always feel Perth is a great multicultural society because the population was never that big,” says Moreno Berti, the
Re’s grandson and, with brother Lorenzo and sister Maria Milani, part of the family’s third-generation group of owners.
“You were forced to be friends with all different nationalities because you couldn’t just keep to being Italian or Greek.
When I first went to Melbourne, the thing I thought was weird was seeing Italians only hanging out with Italians. Different groups weren’t mixing. Because the communities were so small in Perth, you had to.”
Although John learned the ropes about food importing from his father, he was also blessed with a strong entrepreneurial streak. Throughout his career, he sold cooking oils and tinned goods under successful house brands (and, for good measure, came up with label and artwork concepts). On a date that’s since been lost to history, the Res gave Perth its first taste of the continental roll. Consisting of cold cuts, cheese, salad and condiments crammed into a white roll, it’s the west’s answer to regional American-Italian sandwiches such as the hoagie, hero and muffuletta.
This creative thinking wasn’t just limited to foodstuffs, either, with the Res also having influenced Perth’s drinks scene. The original 1936 expansion allowed the Res to begin roasting coffee beans using a small Probat roaster purchased from England. These early experiments led to the establishment of Braziliano, the state’s first coffee brand and a gateway to European-style coffee for Western Australians. “To get to the café culture we have now, it was a long, hard slog,” says Moreno.
The Res also played key roles in changing the state’s attitudes to drinking. When the second, licensed, store opened in Leederville, its airy, familyfriendly setting was a marked departure from the seedy liquor stores that dominated the market during the 1950s. Farnese wines – another Re brand, this time named after the municipality north-west of Rome – introduced many Western Australians to the idea that wine could be an enjoyable part of day-to-day life. At a time when wine options were more or less limited to bulk wines or expensive premium bottles, the idea of being able to take home well-priced white wines, sherry or Renmark special red was a game-changer. The source of the wines, incidentally, were German winemakers whom Re had met when he interned at South Australia’s Loveday, a detention camp for European interns during World War II. (John’s incarceration, however, meant Maria had to run the shop and raise their young family by herself.)
Yet for all this pioneering spirit, Moreno is uncomfortable making any absolute claims about what his grandparents and those before him brought to Perth’s communal dining table.
“They saw an opportunity,” says Moreno. “If it hadn’t been them, then it would have been someone else. We were just the ones who recognised it at the time and we managed to help introduce some gourmet goods to the public.”
The Re Store, 72 Lake St, Northbridge, WA, (08) 9328 1877;
231 Oxford St, West Leederville, WA, (08) 9444 9644.
“I always feel Perth is a great multicultural society because the population was never that big.”